Un Rêve de Trois
by bamftastik
Summary: MA/NSFW - Fantomex/Psylocke/Cluster - What's a guy to do when he's been brought back from the dead, split into three bodies and the woman he loves has taken up with his clone? Fantomex isn't going down without a fight, or at least not until he convinces Elizabeth and Cluster to see the obvious benefits of their situation.


"I am aware that this is unbecoming."

The gargoyle beside me grins like a lecherous oaf, but I've had uglier companions. We are perched above the streets of Paris, the pair of us, drinking away the afternoon. I clink my bottle against his stony head.

"And what of you? What have you seen from this lofty vantage? It's you who is the master voyeur, not I."

It holds its silence.

"Mm, I see. A creature of mystery. Fair enough. Shall we take another peek at our philandering sirens?" Setting the bottle between the statue's claws, I rise to my feet. "Richebourg. Better than you deserve, fiend."

Moving to the roof's edge, I take a moment to appreciate the view. Spectacular. I'm not often inclined to share, but I find myself keenly aware of the void left by the companionship of the last few weeks. This is a city for lovers, an afternoon for lounging spent and satisfied in the arms of a beautiful woman. Just not for me.

I glance back over my shoulder and share a final smirk with the gargoyle. "Jealous? Me?" Then I leap from the roof.

I catch myself on the ledge below, hooking my boots to lower myself upside-down toward the penthouse windows. The nanites filtering my blood prevent the "head rush" that would afflict other men, a handy trick. Before the interlude with my grotesque companion, I was in this position for nearly an hour.

On the balcony below, the doors are thrown wide to let the curtains billow in the breeze. A discerning eye might catch me peeking below the frieze, but I doubt they've taken the time to truly appreciate the view. Laughter floats up to me from inside.

Curiosity brought me here, but claiming it as my sole motivation smacks of self-deception. Ironic, that that has never been among my skills. There is also the matter of lying to a liar and stealing from a thief, always ill-advised and never an easy feat. In other circumstances, I might even admire the daring of it, but I can't decide what rankles more – the idea that I was burgled, or that I was taken unawares.

There's no doubting it now. Even had I not just witnessed such a spectacular display of lovemaking, they've been making no effort to hide their affair. Flaunting it, actually. And in my own home.

From my precarious perch, I can see them sprawled across the bed, a shadowed tangle of limbs that would make Rodin himself weep. Rolling onto her back, Elizabeth – my Elizabeth – stretches and smiles toward the ceiling. She is everything I had imagined and more – beautiful, enigmatic, deadly... and sated. I search my memory, trying to recall if she ever smiled so while lying beside me. She must have.

Beside her Cluster stirs, one arm sliding across her lover to retrieve the champagne. I take a moment to admire her. We certainly do make a beautiful woman. I suppose the obvious argument could be made – it's not cheating if you take to bed with your lover's clone – but we've not yet taken the time to debate the particulars of our unique situation. For a time, we were happy. For a time, it seemed we could be more than just another costumed melodrama.

The bitterness of betrayal surges anew, warring with the idea of two beautiful women lounging naked in my guestroom. Nanotechnology or no, my blood is thundering again, my body by no means shy in its opinion, despite my mind's reluctance. Such exquisite dichotomy. The sensation is not unlike vertigo.

There's no point in drawing this out. I twist free and drop onto the balcony, perhaps a tad ungraceful in my distraction. Their reactions are immediate and predictable.

"Fantomex?!"

"You absolute bastard!"

Lovely Cluster is the very picture of surprise, pure and unmalicious. The rage is all Betsy. She springs from the bed, her fury intensifying as my eyes rake over her. Can she truly blame me?

She grabs the bottle of champagne, brandishing it in my direction, but Cluster lays a hand on her arm.

"Listen to Cluster, dear Elizabeth. You can't imagine what that is worth."

"Like you actually paid for it."

I shrug, hands upraised in mock surrender. "Touché."

"I thought we told you to go away."

"That was over a day ago. I was beginning to grow concerned. I heard such dreadful noises through the door."

"Asshole."

I grin with a wink for Cluster. "She has a wicked tongue, does she not?"

"Elizabeth, if you want him to leave..."

Closing the distance between us, I take the champagne from Elizabeth's hands, smiling at her as I drink deep.

She stares up at me, her glare wavering despite her best efforts. "Dare I even ask where you came from?"

"The roof."

"How long have you been out there?"

"Only since the bit with the... glowing. Why have I not seen that trick before?"

She barely flushes, holds my gaze. "I hate you."

"Lies."

"Not really."

"Are you unhappy?"

She looks between me and Cluster, the sigh unvoiced but unmistakable in her frown. "No. Not unhappy. This is just..."

"An unprecedented frontier of romantic entanglement fit to rival any of the headlines splashed across the superhero tabloids?"

Cluster laughs, soft but rich.

"...Confusing. I fell in love with one man and now he's three."

"So we must sneak about? Ignore the obvious benefits? I have what she doesn't; she has what I lack. And yet we're both still here."

"As far as we know, you've only lost the bad parts." Cluster is beside me now. "Weapon XIII got those. Fantomex is right, I think. No one needs to get hurt. There are other ways to figure out which one of us has the part that you fell in love with." Honest to a fault, this one. But that's the crux, isn't it?

I shake my head. "Or we could not do that. We could stay as we are, the three of us."

"Why?" Elizabeth stares up at me. "Afraid you'll lose?"

"Yes."

The honesty surprises her but she hides it well, both of us refusing to look away.

I press the bottle into Cluster's hands and turn back to Elizabeth. "It seems we have two choices: you could throw me out, or you could... not."

The ladies share a look over my shoulder. I try not to interrupt. After a moment, Elizabeth rolls her eyes.

I open my mouth to again plead my case, but her hand snakes up and grabs me by the chin. Down she pulls me, forcing me to my knees. She smiles at Cluster.

"Beg."

"Gladly, but I believe I've already—"

Elizabeth slaps me lightly on the cheek. Cluster runs her hands across my shoulders. I had honestly expected more of a fight.

"Hm, you want specifics, I take it?"

Another slap, harder than the first. This time Elizabeth jerks my mask, pushing it up above my mouth. She steps closer, close enough for me to feel the warmth of her, to breathe deep and let her overwhelm every sense.

Slowly, she shakes her head. "_Beg_."

Smiling up at her, I wrap my arms around her legs and pull her to me. I do as she commands, whispering my desires into the secret musk of her, making my case with lips and tongue and fingertips. I tell her that she's beautiful. I call her a goddess, a thief of hearts. If she understands, I do not know. The words are foreign to her, muffled by her taste.

I feel Cluster behind me, tugging my shirt up over my head. She takes her time with it, helping as I lift Elizabeth and move us to the bed. Her thighs are around my neck, Cluster's fingers trailing up my spine. She is exploring, my beautiful doppelganger, studying me from the outside. She knows my body as well as I do, an enticing thought with possibilities all its own. One hand slides around to my chest, pinching a nipple between her fingernails in just the right way. I chuckle and Elizabeth sighs in appreciation.

Pushing off of my knees, I lean across the bed and lay a lingering kiss on Elizabeth's lips. Then I turn to Cluster. She smirks up at me, her eyes narrowing with the same questions, the same challenge that has been on my mind. I step close, tracing a finger along her chin, down her neck, across her collar bone. I can feel Elizabeth watching us.

Cluster leans into my touch, my hand sliding lower as her eyes fall closed. Not so long ago we were the same, one person, each the answer to the other's faults. Evidence would suggest that more of those faults were mine than hers. Grabbing the back of my neck, she pulls me down into a kiss and I give her breast a playful squeeze. With her in my arms, I feel whole.

With Elizabeth, though, we are something more. I know that she loves this life, the three of us doing as we please. I've seen her reservations fall away in the thrill of the moment, seen her revel in the crime. But the arguments, the boredom that she makes increasingly less effort to hide... perhaps if we were whole again – truly whole – she could be content.

Taking Cluster by the hand, I lead her back to the bed. Elizabeth uncurls at our approach, rising up to meet us with a thin-lipped smile.

"Isn't that a little...?"

"Shut up."

But Cluster gets there first, before the words have left my mouth, silencing Elizabeth's tongue with her own. I give them their time, enjoying all the nuances I had missed from my previous vantage.

She enjoys Cluster's touch. Dare I make the comparison, wonder if she prefers it to my own? I have danced with such thoughts before, when I first heard the muffled laughter through the walls, when they shut their door in my face. But jealousy makes a clumsy partner.

I brush a hand through Elizabeth's hair, smiling as she turns to me. All of it, every rare thing that I have taken, was valued because it was either beautiful or dangerous. Some were even both. But such value was assigned by others, its meaning to me measurable in terms of advantage or the price others would be willing to pay. Elizabeth was the first treasure I truly wanted for myself. I died to win her.

Her eyes meet mine and there's the briefest flicker in her gaze, more admission than apology. For all the excuses that could be made, she knows that she deceived me, knows what that means. I don't precisely know myself. Were she anyone else... but in all the restless moments of these past days, I had not formed a plan beyond taking a closer look.

I do the only thing I can. Wrapping my arms around her, I crush her to me and we collapse against the pillows.

Together, the ladies make short work of the rest of my clothes. Or almost all of them. As I bury my face in her neck, I feel Elizabeth's hands on my head, tracing the plates in my mask as she draws me inside. It's a terrible tell, but one that I've never had the heart to point out to her. She wants to know what I'm thinking. We both should know that's a bad idea.

Cluster lays beside us, drawing Elizabeth's lips away. One hand brushes the hair back from her face, the other sliding down across her belly, down to where we are joined. Together we are all she could desire –

Cluster outside and me within – and Elizabeth revels in it, her head lolling back as she rolls her hips harder against mine. But her eyes are all for Cluster, tender, generous Cluster. If she is all that was good in me and Weapon XIII holds my darkness, what is left in between? What – besides the obvious – do I bring to this equation?

I lift Elizabeth's hips and rock back on my knees. We're in competition now, no sense in denying it. Cluster moves behind her, her greedy hands again slipping between us as she trails kisses down the back of Elizabeth's neck. Elizabeth, too, senses the shift in tone, her eyes locking to mine, letting me feel her anger as she rises and falls above me. I bury my face in her breasts, my teeth drawing a breathless hiss as she wraps her legs tighter around me.

Her hands are on my shoulders, then, pushing me down onto my back, taking what little control I have left. Cluster is behind her still, straddling my thighs, moving with her. For one intoxicating moment, I belong to them both. But Elizabeth has made her choice. Cluster slides around to face her, sitting on my chest, wriggling away as I nip playfully at her ass. Betsy is laughing, crashing against me, but I can no longer see her.

It is only later, as we lay tangled and exhausted, that I let her fill my eyes. Cluster is between us, as awake as I am, afraid to breathe lest we disturb her sleep. I slide close, wrapping myself around her, the pair of us fitting together as well we should. She snuggles back against me, neither of us able to pull our gaze away. Elizabeth lies sprawled and peaceful, at least for the moment.

I rest my chin on Cluster's shoulder, trailing my fingers along her arm. For Elizabeth, I was willing to die. I wasn't willing to live as a shadow of myself, to watch her fall gratefully into the arms of another. That wasn't the arrangement. What good is a noble sacrifice if it only proved how unworthy I am? I've already had my heart ripped out once.

A smart man knows when to cut his losses and retreat. Even a poor thief knows to weigh the risk against the reward. Everything against nothing. I see that now.

I bury a kiss in Cluster's hair. Beautiful Cluster. There was a time when I trusted no one but myself, a simpler time and one free of complications. It would be an easy thing to go back and, this time, I wouldn't have to be alone. I convinced them that this was the obvious solution, but it seems it was more obvious than I realized.

Elizabeth stirs and Cluster sighs against me. Obvious. Simple. Trust no one... and leave no loose ends.


End file.
